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November 18, 2007

No Age @ the LA River, 11/17/07

No Age shredfest at the LA River

What could have been a humdrum Saturday afternoon turned out to be the most memorable I've had this entire year. No Age and a lucky crowd of about 75 broke history.

Actually, I'm not even sure if we broke history. However, I am certain that no other band has had the gall to execute a renegade show of this particular nature before. This is what happens when you combine an Arthur Magazine editor-type guy, a shoddy generator from OSH, and the awesome punk-revival antics of No Age.

No Age shredfest at the LA River

I found myself on the banks of the LA River in Atwater Village at around 3 p.m. with a handful of wandering No Age fans. Because of the secrecy of the show and the fact that this hasn't been done before, lots of us were confused about whether or not we're even in the right place.

The nature of renegade shows is such that you are not afforded the comfort of relying on what you're told. Everything is up in the air.

No Age shredfest at the LA River

No Age shredfest at the LA River


No Age shredfest at the LA River


No Age shredfest at the LA River


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Sure enough, No Age stroll in with their equipment and start hauling it down the vertiginous banks of the LA River. One simple miscalculation and you could arrive at a tumbling demise. Once they started the leisurely process of setting up, it's made clear to me that they're also filming the beauty of this singular, once-in-a-lifetime event. The handful of people I discovered when I first arrived has now augmented to a healthy crowd of seventy some-odd people.

No Age shredfest at the LA River


No Age shredfest at the LA River

With the sun on its descent and a thick haze suspended in the LA sky, No Age tore through a short-lived shredfest of about three or four songs adjacent to the river. Onlookers perched themselves on the slant of the bank to watch the spectacle, some danced gleefully atop the bank. We basked in the luxury of experiencing No Age in their natural habitat. Simply shredding through some songs in the middle of nowhere with a manageable crowd on a potentially mundane Saturday afternoon. The memorable experience afforded us all a small sense of community.

No Age shredfest at the LA River


No Age shredfest at the LA River

That was...until the rangers showed up. I noticed a man in a featureless, beige uniform during No Age's third song. The man stood in awe, as though he had never seen such a thing, peering from the bridge overhead. By that time, we were perfectly aware that the show would be coming to an abrupt end. The dudes in No Age shrugged it off and continued to plow into a new song. Then, all of the sudden, I heard Dean say, "Oh shit!" I turn around to see two SUVs full of rangers heading our way.

No Age shredfest at the LA River

Truth be told, the rangers probably hadn't ever witnessed anything like it. This many people sitting on the banks of the LA River, a band rocking out with the help of a measly generator, this much heart invested into a slice of our concrete wonderland. The whole experience encapsulates what I love about the LA scene. Some ingenuity, elbow grease, the best punk band in LA, and you've got yourself history in the making. It takes nothing more.

No Age shredfest at the LA River


No Age shredfest at the LA River


No Age shredfest at the LA River

Despite what outsiders think, the LA music community has its fair share of communal musical outings. They've just receded into the clandestine corners of the punk revival scene. I'll add this to the heaping hoard of zany offerings LA has afforded me. Seriously, where else do you get to experience this type of thing? Only in LA.

No Age shredfest at the LA River


No Age shredfest at the LA River


No Age shredfest at the LA River


No Age shredfest at the LA River


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Comments (13)

punk revival...i think not...

how can you use the word "punk" when the band stopped the moment the rangers showed up....yah...real punk...

 

Yeah, you know what would've been real punk? Making a huge scene when the rangers showed up by continuing to play, consequently necessitating the involvement of other law enforcements agencies. Better yet, if they had been shot! Man, that would have been punk...

 

what would a real "punk"er do - keep playing and wait for the LAPD to throw them in jail?

i think you're confusing punk rock artists with frat boys or soccer fans.

 

haha jinx!

 

a video of the entire event, in 3 parts, is here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=a9EbN6B5zLg

 

I think thats bad ass. Wish I coulda seen it.

But I gotta say, these things don't happen ONLY in LA... :-)

Refused played their last show, and broke up, in my neighbor's tiny basement in college. They were on a major tour, decided to call it quits, and pulled over to our small town to play one last impromptu sweaty basement show. Insane... huge tourbus pulls up to the front yard. Word spreads via bike, and the college radio station (cell phones were sorta rare).

Throughout the set, the cops came several times, but as word spread thru town, that the band was indeed playing, the crowd grew exponentially. Finally, I watched the HarrisonburgPD charge down the shoddy wooden stairs, push through the crowd, and physically rip the powerstrips out of the wall, and then pry the guitars from the bands' grip, as the 200 hundred-some sweaty kids finished the final song acapella.

My roomate went to jail for a night, as he was the one dealing with the cops.

It was all pretty fuckin' punk.... in VA.

 

great story Joshua and great pics. LAist has a review of No Age's most recent album HERE

 

Ahh, the good old days when Dave Travis' generator let us watch bands in the desert.

And it is extremely punk to scatter when the cops arrive. The only thing more punk is to get your head bashed in during a riot, but much less fun.

 

Coming from a non-punker, anti-anarchist, I just want to make sure everyone understands why the rangers arrived. There are rules and laws you need to follow and for good reasons: was every piece of litter picked up after the show? Did any of the listeners leave beer bottles behind? Maybe people come to the river to enjoy solitude and silence and don't want to hear an impromptu rock show. Don't over-glamorize what this band did; it's probably been done before and there is a fine line between spontanaeity and imposing your will on others.

 

yes the litter was picked up, thank you for your accusation though.

but after speaking to the ranger, the biggest infraction is people cant walk along the river or even be on the incline.

you can walk along the top part, but you cant be down by the water cuz its dangerous.

there was no noise complaint. we were in an unauthorized part of the "river".

 

Ha... someone accusing people of littering in the pristine l.a. river.

 

Tony, I wasn't accusing anyone of anything; just making sure people were being good neighbors. I'm all for art and we should also use our political energy to make access to the river authorized so everyone can come watch shows instead of having to dodge the cops. That's no fun :(

 

Actually, there were a few people who left their trash as they scattered. The rest of us (including Dean,Randy and Jay) made sure to stay behind and clean up after them (and let anyone who would listen know that littering was in direct conflict with who and what we all are). People even brought brooms and swept up (maybe overkill). The point was it was a community effort. Call it punk, not punk, call it whatever you want, no one involved has labeled it or subscribed to a title of any kind. We were not there to brawl with the police, we simply wanted to create, participate in and document the magic that is happening in Los Angeles at this very moment.

 
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